Opinion: A road map for including Latinos and African Americans in Alzheimer’s research
Alzheimer’s disease is the only leading cause of death in the U.S. that is still on the rise and that does not have a current effective treatment or cure. The limited inclusion of Latinos and African Americans in research will only worsen the outlook, though the success of efforts bubbling up across the country could help us keep up with the disease.
The face of Alzheimer’s is changing, largely because the No. 1 risk factor for it is advanced age. By 2030, the number of Latinos age 65 and older will have grown by 224% and the number of African Americans will have grown 114%, compared to 65% among non-Hispanic whites. As Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) recently reminded us, by 2030 Latinos and African Americans will make up nearly 40% of the 8.4 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s.
